Lilith hummed to herself as she poured a cup of Apple Blood into her favorite blue drinking mug. She had already made herself breakfast, but she wanted to wait for her son to wake up so they could eat together as they usually did.
"Good morning, mom."
Lilith smiled as she heard her twelve-year-old son walk into the room and turned to greet him. She saw that his hair was disheveled from bedhead and he was rubbing his eyes, completely exhausted. As she watched Nero open the refrigerator, she couldn't help but notice an odd line on his shirt that stopped short of his neck.
When Lilith moved just a bit closer, she felt her heart jump when she saw that the line wasn't on his shirt, but his skin, and it looked disturbingly like a scar.
"Nero, what is that?" Lilith asked. Nero ignored the question, so Lilith, in spite of his protests, pulled his collar down and saw exactly what she was afraid of: a series of scars running all the way down his back. "Nero, who did this to you?"
As her heart rate increased, she did her best to keep her temper down as thoughts of severely hurting whoever did this to her son clouded her mind. Instead, she took a deep breath and let out her question.
"Nero, who did this to you?" she asked again as she turned her son around to face her.
"Who did what to me?" Nero asked.
"The scars on your back, Nero. Someone caused them, and I want to know who." Lilith was doing a poor job of hiding her anger, but she hardly cared. Nero looked away from her in silence before finally giving her an answer.
"I fell out of bed."
"Nero, you honestly cannot expect me to believe something like that." Naturally, Lilith didn't believe him for a second. "Those kinds of scars are not something you'd get from simply 'falling out of bed'." Once again, Nero refused to answer her or even so much as look at her, but she grabbed his shoulders and forced him into eye contact. "Nero, if you're having problems with someone, just tell me and I'll handle it. You don't have to lie to protect them; whoever did this doesn't deserve any protection."
With an angry look on his face, Nero, much to her surprise, pulled away from Lilith.
"Mom, I'm fine. I told you I just fell out of bed! I don't need you to coddle me like this!" It was the first time Nero had yelled at her, the first time Nero had gotten mad at her. It startled her for a second, but for both of their sakes, she couldn't let it last any longer than that.
"Nero, do not take that tone with me when I'm just trying to help you. If someone hurt you, I want to know who they are and I want to know now." Nero shot her a glare, but it didn't take long for it to fade away.
"I'm sorry, Mom," Nero said, actually making an effort to look at her. "No one did this to me, I swear." The nearby wallclock started screaming before Lilith could say anything else.
"I have to go to work soon and you have to go to school, so let's put a pin in this," Lilith said with a sigh. "However, I'm going to have Principal Bump tell me if he or any of the teachers know anything, understood?" Nero just nodded at her. "Good. Now, let's take care of this." Lilith knelt down until her forehead was touching her son's, and upon that touch, she recited a select set of words:
"With this spell declared, let the pain be shared."
The two of them shone brightly for a moment before the light faded away. Pain suddenly washed over Lilith's back, and while it quickly subsided, she still found herself feeling the new scars across her back.
"What was that? Why were we glowing like that?" Nero asked.
"It's a spell I learned when I was your age. It halves the pain one has and lets me share in it. Hopefully, your injury is less troublesome now." Nero gave her a nod and a hug before starting on his breakfast. Once that was finished, he went upstairs to his room and came down properly dressed in his school uniform, the sleeves and leggings now having the signature light blue coloring of the Illusionist Track. Lilith couldn't be happier with her son for finally settling on a track as a sixth-grader. He was growing up before her very eyes, and she almost wanted it to stop.
Those were all of the thoughts running through her head as the two of them stepped outside and Lilith carried them into the air.
That was a close one, Nero thought as he waved goodbye to his mother and entered the halls of Hexside and walked to his homeroom with the Illusionist Track.
He remembered last night when he went out to fight monsters. Things were going pretty well, him shooting fireballs and ice spears, using an ethereal arm to throw them around or punch them out, killing them left and right, but then he got blindsided and struck on the back by either a bladed arm or a large claw, he couldn't remember which one exactly.
Either way, something he also learned was that he evidently healed faster than the norm, and usually whenever he took damage, such as a scrape or a cut, he healed fast enough that it was gone by morning.
No such luck with last night, as the slash wound on his back was large enough that it was still there the morning after, and enough that it caught his mother's attention.
He felt bad about lying to her about what he was doing, especially since she used her magic to take half the pain from the injury he got. He enjoyed what he did, sneaking out some nights and fighting monsters in the woods for fun, but she worried a lot and cared for him being as safe as possible. Her knowing about what he was doing would likely cause her to have a panic attack.
Plus, he also feared that her knowing about this would disappoint her, and while he tended to disagree with what his mom wanted for him sometimes, he also wanted to make her happy.
As he entered the classroom, still surrounded by mirrors, he half-heartedly greeted his teacher and took his seat, more or less tuning out the teacher's lecture as he thought back to last night.
He didn't want to worry his mother again or risk getting having his occasional sneaking out to be discovered, so he'd have to figure out a way to avoid arousing his mother's suspicion. So far, the best way he thought he could do that was by avoiding any further injuries like the one he received.
But how was he supposed to do that? Fighting monsters was a lot more complicated than what he thought it would be when he started out. Sometimes caution had to be thrown to the wind, and that would lead him to where he was this morning.
Maybe what I need is to start bringing a weapon along to fight with? Nero thought as he went back to listening to the teacher's lecture.
That seemed like a good place to start.
As the morning bell screamed and Nero made his way to his next class, he passed by a group of kids his age chatting about. "Nero, I know it's hard, but try to make friends at school. You never know until you try," were the words of his mother that suddenly came to mind, and in a similar spur of the moment, he cleared his throat to draw their attention.
"Excuse me," he started, "Nice to meet you guys, my name is Ne-"
"OMG, it's Nero!" As soon as one of the girls shouted that, the entire group started crowding him.
"Hey, could I meet your mom? Think I have a chance of getting into the Emperor's Coven?"
"Oh, speaking of Madam Lilith, can I get her autograph?"
"Wow, you're even cuter up close! Any chance you're available right now?" All of those people and not a single one asking a question actually about him. Having enough of that, Nero conjured a puff of smoke and used the cover to make a break from everyone. Fortunately, no one managed to follow him, and Nero was able to make his way to class in peace.
With that, his resolve to not make friends with anyone at school was strengthened even further.
Nero opened his lunchbox and briefly dug into his meal before he put it away, not really hungry at the moment. Instead, he pulled out one of his journals and looked through some of the sketches he had made during his later classes.
Many of them were of different weapons with pros and cons to them. So far, he'd drawn a halberd, a sword, a battle axe, and a javelin. If he was going to bring a weapon with him to fight monsters, then he wanted to make sure it was the ideal tool he could use.
Alright, so the halberd has good reach, but it's also got a long pommel and is heavier, and since I'm trying to avoid something like last night, I'm gonna have to nix that option. The battle axe has the same issue. It has a lot of weight to it, so unless I want to take hits like I did before and get caught, I'm gonna have to not go with that, Nero thought, going over the weapon options in his head as he briefly chewed on the end of his pen.
"Okay," he said out loud to himself, "That just leaves the javelin and the sword. So what are the pros and cons to each?"
"Hi Nero!" a pair of familiar voices invaded his eardrums from his left and right.
Oh Titan fucking dammit, Nero cursed as he didn't even bother looking to know exactly who was at his left and right.
"What do you two want?" he said before turning to face Emira, who was wearing her hair in a high ponytail and currently dressed in the standard Hexside uniform he wore prior. Being a year behind him, neither she nor Edric had selected a track just yet.
"Oh, we just wanted to say hi, see how you were doing. Is that so wrong?" Emira said with an annoying grin plastered on her face.
You're up to something, Nero thought, I don't know what, but I know you are.
"Hey, what are you drawing?" Edric asked as he reached for the notebook. Before his hand could even touch it, Nero slammed it closed and put it away.
"None of your business, Blight," Nero said, emphasizing disdain on the saying their last name, "Now, I'm trying to eat lunch, so would you two kindly buzz off?"
Emira held out her hands in mock surrender, annoying smirk still on her face, "Fine, fine, we'll go somewhere else for lunch," she said as she and Edric got up and started walking away before she turned back to him, "Though I don't know what your problem is with us, we're just trying to be friendly."
Nero scoffed, "Oh please, that's a lie if I ever heard one," he retorted, "All you two ever do is annoy me. If that's your idea of 'friendly', then go away before I cast fireball on you."
Both of the twins just giggled before smirking at him, "Okay, we'll go for now, " Emira said, "See you later, bestie."
As the two left, Nero groaned as he pulled his lunch back out and continued eating. In the past four years since he met the Blight twins, he kept finding them insufferable with how they kept trying to forcibly insert themselves into his life, constantly annoying him. They were almost like a bad rash that never really went away when you first got it.
And the worst part? He still found their presence more preferable to all the other students fawning over him like an idol or asking favors from his mom like he was an express lane to success. If nothing else, they annoyed him, but didn't treat him like he wasn't a person.
"Alright, Miss Clawthorne, what seems to be the trouble?"
Lilith sat poised in her seat. It was the end of the school day, as she told her son this morning, she intended to learn if someone at his school caused those wounds she saw on his back. Currently, Nero sat outside the office, waiting for her to finish.
"Well, last night, I noticed that my son had some scars on his back. When I asked who gave them to him, he refused to answer," she leaned forward, "I want to know if you or your teachers have noticed him being bullied here. Has anyone been bothering in a manner that could have led to that?"
"Hmmm," Principal Bump pondered as he scratched the red demon he wore on his head, "No, sorry to say, but none of the teachers have reported anything of the sort, nor have I seen him undergoing any roughhousing. If anything, your son is actually rather popular and well-loved here. I can hardly imagine anyone wanting to do something like that to him."
That...wasn't quiet the answer she was hoping for. While she was glad her son was well-liked, at the same time, her mind couldn't get off what she saw this morning. She didn't want to see her son hurt like that, and she fully intended to put in their place whomever caused it.
But to do that, she needed a name and a face, and so far, she had nothing. Nero had school yesterday, and he was with her the rest of the day. So logically, either someone or something here at school caused that. Where else could he have gotten it from?
It really couldn't have just been him falling out of bed, could it have been? Lilith thought as she stroked her chin, What am I thinking? How on the Titan could someone possibly get a wound like that from falling off the bed?
It was rather unthinkable to her. She'd never heard of something so ridiculous and outlandish happening, except...
Lilith snapped awake from the sound of a loud "OUCH!" that emanated across the hall from her room. Yawning, she got out of bed and rubbed her eyes before she put her glasses on and walked to her little sister's room where the noise came from.
As she opened the door, she cast a light spell to illuminate the room. The blue glow revealed Edalyn on the floor, rubbing her arm in pain as tears welled up in her eyes.
"Edalyn, what happened?" Lilith asked as she ran up to her sister's side.
"I..*sniff*..I fell out of bed and hurt my arm," she cried as she showed her the injury. Lilith was shocked by how bad the bruise looked. How could something as simple as falling out of bed produce an injury that bad?
After seeing the tears fall from her sister's eyes, she didn't think anymore on it. Instead, she pulled her sister into a loving embrace and did her best to sooth her.
"It's okay Edalyn. Everything will be okay," she said as she placed her hands on the sides of her sister's head and touched their foreheads together.
"With this spell declared, let the pain be shared."
Suddenly, Lilith felt a strong pain on her arm and she began to rub at it to ease it away. She pulled her sleeve back to see a lesser version of the bruise that Edalyn had.
It hurt. It hurt a LOT in fact, but she could bare with it. She looked to Edalyn's arm and saw that her bruise had lessened as well, with her sister wiping the tears from her eyes.
"T-thanks Lily," Edalyn sniffled as she reached out and hugged her. Lilith smiled and returned the embrace.
"Anytime sister, just try to be more careful next time," Lilith told Edalyn as she pulled back from the hug, "I never thought falling off your bed could make a bruise that awful."
"Don't worry, I promise I'll be more careful Lilith."
"Lilith."
"Lilith!"
"Huh?" Lilith shook her head as she was snapped out of her memory. In front of her was Principal Bump, waving his hand in front of her eyes, as if trying to snap her out of a daze.
"You went silent for a couple minutes there," Principal Bump said, "Is something wrong?"
"No, it's nothing," she replied to her former principal, "I just remembered something is all. Nothing to be concerned over."
Maybe, Nero was being honest, Lilith thought, Maybe some things that sound so implausible are actually the case.
Looking back, her son probably had more of her sister in him than she wanted to admit.
"In any case, while neither I nor the other teachers have witnessed what you're describing, rest assured that we'll keep an eye out for any signs of trouble. Would that suffice?" Principal Bump asked.
Lilith curtly nodded and said, "I suppose that will do, but if it does end up happening, the first thing I want you to do is tell me. Understood?"
"So long as you don't kill the students involved, then yes," Bump said with at least some dismissal in his voice, "Can't really say I'd approve a move like that."
"If it's any consolation, I wasn't planning on killing anyone who would do that to my son," Lilith replied.
"Right, and Painbows don't turn you inside out," he retorted.
Before Lilith could retort back, the door opened and one of the school teachers walked in.
"Uh, Principal Bump," she said, "We have a problem."
"And what would tha-"
"AAAAAAAAHHHHHH! GET IT OFF ME!"
"GIVE ME YOUR FLESH!"
The screaming in the background gave an indication what the teacher meant as she awkwardly rubbed the back of her head.
"The, uh...the Choosy Hat broke out again."
"Ugh, fifth time this month," Bump groaned as he placed a palm to his face before looking at Lilith, "If you have any other concerns, let me know. Right now I need to stop the Choosy Hat from eating someone else's face."
Before she could answer, Principal Bump and the teacher were out of the room faster than she could react.
As she stood there, unreacting to what happened, she saw her son stick his head through the door.
"Hey, mom, are you done?" he asked, "Cause I saw the principal and one of the teachers chase after a weird hat thing on one of the students."
"Yes, we're done here," she said as she quickly got up and grabbed her son's hand, "Now let's get out of here before we start to look like a decent meal to that Titanforsaken hat."
She then ran as fast as she could, doing her best to ignore the sounds of the ensuring fight against the hat, with her son keeping up behind her. As soon as they were outside Hexside, she manifested her staff and carried both of them home.
Nero sat in his room as he continued drawing and writing in his journal regarding his potential weapon. At this point, he felt like he'd come to a decent conclusion.
While the javelin was good at a distance, it was mainly a throwing/stabbing tool, so unless he was super precise with hitting weakpoints, it wasn't really ideal, especially if the monsters he would fight were faster than expected like they were last night.
The sword on the other hand, was probably the most balanced weapon out of all his choices. The usual ones were bladed on both ends, had decent weight that he could put his strength behind, but not too much that it would be cumbersome to use. He could be fast and hard-hitting with one where as with the rest, he was more limited in how he could fight.
The big question is where am I going to get a sword? Nero thought. It wasn't like he had any swords lying around in his house.
Except...
Wait, what about that one sword mom has in her closet?
He remembered the first, and only time, he ever held that sword back when he was four. But mom would never let him so much as touch that sword, so it wasn't like he could just go 'Hey mom, can I borrow that sword in your closet for something? Don't worry, I'm not fighting anyone or anything with it.' since that would clue her in on his occasional night time fights.
"So," Nero said to himself, "How do I sneak it out without her noticing?"
It was relatively close to midnight when Nero got out of bed, pumped on his own adrenaline, taking one of his shirts and tying it around his right arm to hide its glow so that it wouldn't risk waking his mom up before he started tip toeing around the house to his mother's room.
By this point, she should be fast asleep, so all he had to do was sneak the sword out without her noticing. He just needed to avoid making too much noise, as while his mom was a heavy enough sleeper that she could probably sleep through an explosion, that still didn't mean he could be noisy.
Quietly, he opened the door to his mom's room, trying to prevent it from making any creaking sounds. As he walked in, he saw his mom sprawled out all over the bed, snoring really, really loudly.
Time to do this, Nero thought as he silently tip toed all the way to the room's closet, opening the door and closing it behind him. Unable to see, he formed a spell circle and created a small ball of blue light that illuminated the area in front of him.
Alright sword, where are you? Nero looked all over the closet, moving different sets of his mom's clothes aside to see where she hid the weapon. It had to be around here somewhere, after all.
After a few minutes of searching, rummaging past sets of clothes and boxes that were labeled 'Childhood', he finally found the sword, looking exactly the same as it did years ago. He smiled to himself as he picked it up, testing its weight in his hand.
Despite the length, it didn't feel quite as cumbersome as it was when he first picked it up. Nero supposed that was due to him getting stronger over the years.
Now that he has the sword, he walked out of his mother's closet, closing the door behind him and dissipating the light spell as he once again tip toed out of the room.
But just as he was half way to the door...
"Stop..."
Nero's heart almost leapt out of his chest as his mother's voice made him freeze. He slowly turned, expecting to see a withering glare from his mother at what he was doing.
Instead, he was met with her still facing the ceiling, eyes closed, talking in her sleep.
"No, stop it *yawn*-lyn, you're gonna get us in trouble," she muttered as she turned around and faced opposite of him.
Nero resisted the urge to sigh with relief as he kept sneaking out of the room, slowly closing the door behind him and removing the shirt tied around his right arm.
Now that he had a sword, he could go out and start kicking monster ass.
Nero found himself back in the woods again, looking about for any monsters he could fight against. This time with his mother's Coven saber in his left hand, ready to cut down whatever he fought.
A slash filled the air as Nero turned just in time to see a small tree flying towards him. He quickly bent backward and flipped as it flew over him and he landed on his feet. Nero looked up to face his attackers and saw what was probably the ugliest set of monsters he'd seen so far.
He remembered seeing them in pictures in his book. These shambling, emancipated skeletal figures in hoods and robes were called Hell Caina. From what Nero could understand, they came from deeper in Hell, but if he had to guess why they were here, the must have gotten lost or left behind a long time ago.
The front most of the three Cainas rushed at him, scythe tearing through the ground as Nero quickly dodged just before the swung attack could make contact. Not wasting opportunity, he gave the Coven saber a swing aimed right at the monster's undefended torso, slicing it clean in half.
Nero looked to the remaining two shamblers and got an idea. Using his left finger while still holding onto the sword, he cast a blue circle that conjured up an exact replica of himself. Something he learned in his Illusionist home room recently that seemed like it'd be useful for off-balancing anything he fought.
Given how the two Cainas looked at each other and back to both him and his illusion, it seemed like they were thoroughly confused.
Smirking, he sent the illusion first, which prompted the two Cainas to charge at it and meet it head on with a double downward slash, poofing the illusion and leaving their weapons impaled into the ground.
Seeing that both of them were now stuck, Nero ran forward and jumped into the air, landing atop the edges of heir weapons, further impaling them into the ground and making the Cainas look up at him.
"Sorry guys, but it looks like I'm gonna have to..." Nero started before he stopped, looking down for a second as he scratched his head, "Gonna...have to...eh, screw it."
He then swung the saber at both of their heads, slicing them clean off as he jumped back from his position on the scythes and landed a few feet back as he hoisted the sword on his shoulder.
"Well, they sure got ahead of themselves," Nero smugly said before he groaned and slapped his face with the palm of his right hand.
He wasted his chance to have a cool one-liner, and replaced it with a shitty pun.
"Titan dammit, I messed that up," he grumbled as the sound of rustling bushes turned his attention behind him.
Shambling out of the shadows was a quartet of familiar looking burlap-skinned monsters with blades in places that they shouldn't be.
Nero smiled as he took the saber and pointed it right at the Scarecrows.
If nothing else, he had more opportunities to come up with something kickass to say in a fight.
"Well, that was fun."
Nero was walking back home, having had his fun fighting and testing out his new weapon. But as he walked home, he ran into one small problem.
He needed to hide the sword. The question was where would he?
He couldn't hide it in his room, since if he did, his mom would stumble upon it and she'd find everything else out. He didn't think he could just put it back in her closet since he didn't know if he'd get unlucky and accidentally wake his mother up when he decided to sneak out.
Where can I hide this thing so I can keep using it? Nero mused as he walked. Until...
"Oof!"
…he bumped into something and fell to the ground.
As he shook his head and got up, he looked to what he bumped into and saw that it was a rather twisted looking large tree. It actually looked less like a tree and more like two trees twisted together and connected at the trunk.
"Okay, definitely the weirdest tree I've seen in my life," Nero said to himself as something from the corner of his eye caught his attention.
He looked and saw what looked like an opening in a nearby rock formation. Ignoring the tree for now, he slowly walked towards the opening and manifested a ball of light as he neared.
As the blue light illuminated the opening, he saw that the inside was a rather small cave, with him being able to see the end of it not very far in. He then looked back to the twisted tree that garnered his attention first and began thinking.
"Interesting..." he started forming an idea.
"Nero, have you seen it?"
Lilith asked her question as she walked into her son's room, who didn't answer her question as he sat at his home desk, writing in his notebook from the looks of it. When she walked up to look over his shoulder, she found that he was writing a bunch of non-sequiturs. Many of them sounded like what his favorite cartoon characters would say in the middle of a fight.
"What are you doing?" she asked directly in his ear, causing him to perk up and face her.
"Oh, sorry mom, didn't hear you," he said, looking a little flustered, "I'm just writing cool one-liners."
"Right," Lilith said as she read some of the lines he was writing and resisted the urge to roll her eyes at how cheesy some of them sounded, "And...why are you doing that?"
In response, he simply shrugged, "Because they're cool. Why wouldn't I?"
"Nevermind," Lilith sighed as she pinched the bridge of her nose, "I'm looking for my old Coven saber. Have you seen it?"
Once again, he shrugged and went back to writing his lines. Lilith raised an eyebrow.
"Nero, did you take my old sword?" she received a head shake in response, "Well then I hope you don't mind if I search your room."
Her son just continued to write as she began looking around his room. She checked everywhere; under the bed, in his closet, on his shelves, in his toy chest, even levitating all furniture in the room (including her son on his desk, who was still writing one-liners) to search more clearly.
Nothing. Her sword wasn't in here. Seeing this, she gently and carefully placed everything back where it originally was before.
"Hm, well it's not here, then where could it be?" Lilith mused, "I couldn't have misplaced it, could I?"
She looked back to her son, who was still writing those rather inane lines, and gave him a gentle kiss on the side of his head.
"Sorry about that, but I needed to check," she said before admitting, "Granted, I never used the old thing, but I still liked having it around. If I can't find it, I'll see if I can ask for a replacement."
"Uh huh," Nero said without even facing her. While Lilith was somewhat upset, she did see how invested her son was in what he was doing, so she left it at that.
"Not sure what's so 'cool' about half of these things you're writing," Lilith admitted before she shrugged, "I suppose I may be a little out of touch with the youth these days."
With that, she left her son's room and began searching around the rest of the house. In hindsight, it was rather unlikely that her son would have her old sword around. Despite his fascination with fighting, he never acted on it and was content to just watch them on the Crystal Ball, draw pictures of them, and read about them in books.
Keeping that in mind, what need would he have for a sword anyway?
It was past midnight when Nero decided to sneak out again, though unlike the previous night, he had no intention of going out to fight monsters this time. Instead, he was heading to the twisted tree and small cave opening, which he decided to name 'The Hideaway'.
As he made his way to it, he thought back on earlier today when his mother came in to look for her sword. He still felt bad about taking the sword and going behind her back. She was his mother after all, always taking care of him and knowing what to say to help him feel better. He loved her and she loved him, and lying to her about this made him feel wrong inside.
While he wrote in his journal to come up with new, better one-liners to drop when he fought against monsters, part of the reason he was doing that was also because he needed something to distract himself from those feelings of guilt for taking the Coven saber.
Still, even with those feelings, he kept trying to make sense of it all.
"Remember Nero, it'll help you avoid getting cuts and scratches like last time," he said to himself as he neared the twisted tree, "Less of that means less stress and worry for mom. Also less pain sharing."
After seeing his mom use that one spell to mitigate the pain from the scars and take part in it, he also wanted to do what he could to make sure she never had to use it on him again.
"Let's get you out of there," Nero formed a spell circle with his left hand and green energy coated the twisted tree, causing it to split open, revealing the Coven saber hidden inside.
Briefly looking around, he took the sword and went into the Hideaway, forming a ball of light and pulling out his journal so that he could get to work. He started drawing and writing down the different ways that the saber could be augmented and made better at what it could do. In the corner of the page, he also got to work on coming up with a good name for it. After all, every good sword needed a name.
"Let's see, Rebellion?" Nero mused out loud, "Nope. How about Endbringer? Nah, doesn't feel right. Maybe, Force Edge?"
Nero continued trying to come up with names for a good ten minutes. And then it hit him.
"Wait, I got it!" he then crossed out all his other name choices as he wrote down and circled what he knew his weapon would be called.
"From now on I think I'll call you, Red Queen."